{"id":1312454,"date":"2023-11-04T04:11:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T04:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenqueen.com.hk\/?p=68420"},"modified":"2023-11-04T04:11:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T04:11:26","slug":"the-net-zero-challenge-carbon-offsets-need-to-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/04\/the-net-zero-challenge-carbon-offsets-need-to-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Net-Zero Challenge: Carbon Offsets Need to Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"net<\/div>\n

<\/span> 5<\/span> Mins Read<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stop pretending planting trees can justify fossil fuel emissions.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Mark Schapiro<\/em><\/span>, Capital & Main<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Fossil fuel companies are no longer<\/strong> denying the realities of climate change \u2014 which many of them reported on privately for decades. Instead, they\u2019re attempting to position themselves as key players in the \u201clow-carbon transition.\u201d And key to that is the companies\u2019 embrace of the mantra of \u201cnet-zero\u201d emissions. As we sweat through what a climate scientist has called a \u201cgobsmackingly bananas<\/a>\u201d heat wave \u2014 three record-breaking months from July through September \u2014 the claims of net zero emissions are becoming ever more deeply entwined with fossil fuel companies\u2019 public relations strategies.<\/p>\n

Net zero is the idea<\/a> that emissions in one place \u2014 an oil refinery or the cars and planes using its products \u2014 are balanced out by the removal of carbon dioxide in another place. The elegance in that equation, which may make sense in a classroom, gets messy when it turns out that most of those other places intended to balance fossil fuel emissions are trees, which absorb CO2 and are located primarily in tropical forests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carbon Brief’s net-zero findings<\/h2>\n

The difficulty in tracking emissions reductions based on promises to reduce deforestation in such distant and complicated ecosystems has prompted a rising chorus of scientists, think tanks, U.N. officials, research institutions and journalists who say it\u2019s time to blow apart the system of carbon offsets. It\u2019s time to return to the heart of the matter, they argue: reduce greenhouse gas emissions where they\u2019re produced. Cut through the PR smokescreen, and it becomes clear that the carbon offsets approach to net zero emissions produces practically zero results.<\/p>\n

At a conference of international investigative reporters last month in Gothenberg, Sweden \u2014 most of whom came from outside the United States and were affiliated with the Global Investigative Journalism Network<\/a> \u2014 a repeated theme was accountability of the fossil fuel companies for the massive damage from climate change. On panels and in the hallways, there was a sense that it was time to challenge oil and gas companies\u2019 promotion of net zero climate strategies.<\/p>\n

The rise of net zero has fueled a rise in what\u2019s known as the \u201cvoluntary carbon market,\u201d \u2014 a multibillion market for the buying and selling of carbon offsets. At the conference,  Jim Footner, director of the British-based climate research firm ARIA<\/a> (analysis, research, insight, action), said that about 100 countries and more than a third of the world\u2019s largest corporations have net zero targets. \u201cNet zero is a veneer,\u201d Footner said: \u201cAn empty space that companies can promote without being specific.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was on a panel with Leo Hickman, editor and director of Carbon Brief<\/a> \u2014 a U.K.-based research institution and publication that deals with the economics of climate change and carbon markets. He shared the institution\u2019s recent findings: <\/a><\/p>\n